The Five Principles of Mars

The Mars Five Principles of Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom are the foundation of our culture and our approach to business. They unite us across geographies, languages, cultures and generations.

Our Five Principles are synonymous with Mars and have been guiding Mars Associates throughout most of our company’s history. Every day, we do our best to put our principles into action through our work and our relationships with our consumers, customers, business partners, communities and one another.

Quality

Mars Associates all around the world seek to create mutual benefits for our business and the people and communities whose lives we touch.

Everybody has a voice...anybody can question the quality of any order. And the standard is very simple: put yourself in the position of the consumer, and if you wouldn’t be happy with what you’re going to give them, don’t give it to them.

Responsibility

As individuals, we demand total responsibility from ourselves; as Associates, we support the responsibilities of others.

We choose to be different from those corporations where many levels of management dilute personal responsibility. All Associates are asked to take direct responsibility for results, to exercise initiative and judgment and to make decisions as required. By recruiting ethical people well suited to their jobs and trusting them, we ask Associates to be accountable for their own high standards.

We feel responsible if we’re going to start the industry here, and help it grow, we really needed to make sure that the best of the best methodologies are brought to form.

Mutuality

A mutual benefit is a shared benefit; a shared benefit will endure.

We believe the standard by which our business relationships should be measured is the degree to which mutual benefits are created.

These benefits can take many different forms, and need not be strictly financial in nature. Likewise, while we must try to achieve the most competitive terms, the actions of Mars should never be at the expense, economic or otherwise, of others with whom we work.

You help your customer; your customer helps you. These guys stayed with us (Mars) through that crisis, all of them, and we stayed with them.

Efficiency

We use resources to the full, waste nothing and do only what we can do best.

How is it possible to maintain our principles, offering superior value for money and sharing our success? Our strength lies in our efficiency, the ability to organize all our assets – physical, financial and human – for maximum productivity. In this way, our products and services are made and delivered with the highest quality, at the least possible cost, with the lowest consumption of resources; similarly, we seek to manage all our business operations with the most efficient processes for decision making.

Being able to act, to make lasting improvements, is a pleasure. It’s personally satisfying to know that I helped make things work better.

Freedom

We need freedom to shape our future; we need profit to remain free.

Mars is one of the world’s largest family-owned corporations. This family ownership is a deliberate choice. Many companies began as Mars did, but as they grew larger and required new sources of funds, they sold stocks or incurred restrictive debt to fuel their business. To extend their growth, they exchanged a portion of their freedom. We believe growth and prosperity can be achieved another way.

The way we carry out our research is absolutely unique; it is what we call ‘Caring Science.’ In research, because there are so many unknowns, freedom is an absolute requirement.